Last week, I drove a friend to Chicago. While heading west on the Indiana Toll Road, we passed just to the North of Gary Regional Airport. My friend mentioned that Pan Am flew scheduled service from that airport with Boeing 727s a few years ago. I find that hard to believe. Why would Pan Am fly from that small airport. If they did fly out of Gary, where did they fly to? Has any other airline had service from Gary?

Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.....

Pan Am pulled out GYY a couple months ago. I believe they flew to Orlando and Portsmouth from Gary. Pan Am is a niche carrier. There is no way it would survive flying into MDW or ORD where ATA/WN or UA/AA would litterly take it apart. Casino Express flies charters from GYY-Elko, Nevada with 737-200s

I believe they flew to Sanford FL, as well as BLV and I also want to say Portsmouth NH. Unfortunately, they pulled out.

Red Lion Casino Express also has some flights to Elko NV. Parking is free at GYY and someday I wouldn't mind being on a run.

I think expanding this airport is a no-brainer. It's mostly surrounded by blighted neighborhoods and abandoned factories and warehouses; few would complain about runway and terminal projects. There are many people in northwest Indiana who use MDW and don't want to drive to ORD.

The City of Chicago formed a partnership with GYY some years ago in the hopes of heading off the proposed Peotone airport. Since then, the ORD expansion effort has taken a few more steps and looks more like an inevitability. GYY expansion seems a distant possibility now.

Any other Chicago-area members care to add their observations, insights, and predictions?

They flew there and other airports that are not really served by carriers is because of the competition if they went from STL to ORD or MDW. If they did the big carriers would try to shut them out and take their passengers like ATA did with Mexicana on the MDW GJU route. They wanted to serve the easier airports because of the ease and no congestion but ORD and MDW can't fufill that for them, that's why they went to Gary. The reason they left was because that the downturn of air travel due to the terrorist attacks and the low pax on this route SFB-BLV-GYY they decided to stop it.

With the Skyway, It gets congested sometimes and I don't know about the South Shore Transit line either.

"He was right, it is a screaming metal deathtrap!"-Cosmo (from the Fairly Oddparents)

The main problem with GYY expansion is that one or more rail lines have to be moved, and their might be some neighboring sights that need toxic waste clean up.

GYY would make a lot more sense than a new airport in Peotone. For the western suburbs, driving to Peotone is a nightmare. There is no straight route. With Gary, one could drive 294 to 94, then cut over. Far easier driving.

They quit flying out of BLV some time ago. Mid America is the biggest joke in the world. They spent tons of money on a terminal at Scott AFB thinking that people would drive out to this airport that's 30 miles east of Downtown St. Louis (STL is about 12). The most frequent visitors are aircraft from my flight school and the C-9s stationed at the base. They have practiacally been giving the airport to whoever wants to come in. Great Plains just announced like 12 flights daily out of there on 328Jets. I hardly see how they will succeed where Pan Am has failed. There will be more than enough slots and gates available at STL come November 1.